Bridging the Gap: MOI and UNDP to Strengthen Police-Community Partnerships

Supported by UNDP, the Ministry of Interior held a two-day national conference to strengthen police and community partnerships.

Over 500 participants attended the event, including senior government officials, members of police community partnership councils, lawmakers, police officials from all 34 provinces, members of civil society, and human rights activists. The conference took place after a series of seminars and consultation sessions over the past year with community elders and police officials throughout the country.

Speaking to the conference, Acting Minister of Interior, Mr. Wais Ahmad Barmak, emphasized the partnership between police and communities as the most important mechanism for sustaining peace and security.

“Maintaining security and enforcing the law is what people expect from us, so my highest priority is to build trust between police and communities, so people are part of the decision making on security issues”, said Mr.Barmak.

The minister praised UNDP’s role in facilitating the conference and its continued work building the capacity of Afghan police.

The Chief Executive of the National Unity Government, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah opened the second day of the conference. In his speech, Dr. Abdullah also emphasized the need for police and community partnership, and promised the full support of the government to achieve this goal. “The formation of police and community councils is one of the most important steps for building people’s confidence and trust in the police,” noted Dr. Abdullah. The Chief Executive also thanked UNDP and other international partners for their support to the Afghan police force.

The participants worked in several groups to exchange views and develop recommendations to further strengthen cooperation between police and communities and also had the chance to speak directly to the Minister of Interior about local issues, which the minister promised to address.

UNDP works with the Ministry of Interior to develop its institutions and professionalize the police force, to enforce laws and provide security for citizens. UNDP has supported the establishment of 16 provincial community policing departments and about 320 community policing partnership councils at the district level, with six more to be inaugurated by the end of 2017.

Video Reports:

Director of community policing at MOI Gen Humayoon Ainy spoke with Tolo News’ Mehwar show about the conference: